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Every Woman Every Newborn EverywherE
Healthy Futures

Country action

Malawi

Photo © 2023 WHO / Gary Chong Studios – Faris Syazwan:
Ismaziah, a community nurse and midwife, assesses the child’s health and runs through the standard medical protocol checklist.

Every Woman Every Newborn in Malawi

Download the full profile with additional key demographics, progress against milestones, and more.

This profile was developed in May 2023, using data from 2018-2023. 

Download the full Malawi profile

National mortality targets

Maternal
mortality ratio

140 per 100,000 live births
by 2030

Stillbirth
rate

No data

Neonatal mortality rate

12 per 1,000 live births
by 2030

Progress to meet the national maternal, newborn mortality and stillbirth reduction targets

©UNICEF/WHO.

Progress to meet Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere coverage targets

MNH Acceleration Plan highlights

In 2024, some of Malawi’s MNH Acceleration Plan priorities include:

  • Quality of care standards and respectful maternal care implemented in health facilities.
  • Improve communication and transport for referral
  • Conduct outreach clinics for hard-to-reach areas
  • Develop a community scorecard on MNH

©UNFPA/Luis Tato. Ruth Domi, a mother who delivered her baby recently poses for a portrait in the maternity ward at Ntchisi District Hospital in Ntchisi, Malawi in October  2021.

©UNICEF/Eldson Chagara. A mother demonstrates the Kangaroo Mother Care technique at Bwaila Maternity Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, in April 2010.

Quality of care in Malawi

Malawi is one of the 11 countries that set-up the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (Quality of Care Network). Malawi’s successes in improving quality of care for maternal, newborn and child health are essential to help reduce maternal and newborn mortality and stillbirths. These include:

  • A National Quality Management Policy is implemented.
  • The World Health Organization’s standards to improve quality of maternal and newborn care, small and sick newborns care, and children and young adolescents care in health facilities are adopted.
  • Malawi added an additional standard for community engagement and social accountability activities and outcomes. Malawi established social accountability structures at national level to ensure the provision of quality MNCH services across all health facilities.
  • Training for quality improvement in MNCH is expanded nationally to all 29 districts.
  • A national MNCH online learning platform on quality of care was set up  for frontline health workers with over 1200 health enrolled, as part of their continuous professional development.
  • A plan to strengthen the health workforce, especially neonatal nurses is underway.

News and events

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Resources

Compendium on respectful maternal and newborn care

August 7, 2025

The compendium supports efforts to end mistreatment and achieve respectful maternal and newborn care. It is published by WHO together with UNFPA, UNICEF and the United Nations’ Special Programme on Human Reproduction (HRP), with support from Jhpiego and the MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership programme. 

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